[Don Pickett]

Good idea?

I live in a small apartment, and space is at a premium. As it's already filled up with too many computers and monitors, I want to find an HD TV I can fit into my bookshelves. All of the small TVs I see which can fit are either non-HD, or 720. However, there are 20" inch 1080p monitors with speakers. As TVs and monitors all seem to be essentially the same things now, are there any downsides to using a monitor as a TV? I know the monitor won't have a tuner, but I have cable, so that's not an issue. I figure all I need is HDMI in and I'm good.

Good idea? Bad idea? Stupid idea? Advantages? Shortcomings?

[nonhuman]

Totally a good idea.

I'm currently watching Football in a window on my 27" iMac as I type this. I use Elgato's EyeTV along with a SiliconDust HDHomeRun and a pair of cheap RadioShack rabbit ears to stream digital, high-def content to my iMac; EyeTV gives me DVR capabilities. It works really well. Plus any video you record is save in plain old video files that you can do whatever you want with, and EyeTV will automatically encode stuff for AppleTV/iPhone/iPad and export it to iTunes for you.

[Don Pickett]

I spent a fair amount of time researching El Gato's stuff, but the problem is I live in NYC and Time Warner scrambles their cable signal, which means El Gato can't get at it.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Don Pickett 

I spent a fair amount of time researching El Gato's stuff, but the problem is I live in NYC and Time Warner scrambles their cable signal, which means El Gato can't get at it.

Well that sucks. Another option, if you have a 27" iMac is to get an HDMI to Mini Display Port adapter. I've got one of these that I use for my Xbox 360 as I don't own an actual TV.

This is the one that I have, it works really well: Amazon.com: Kanex XD HDMI to Mini DisplayPort Converter for 27 inch iMac: Electronics

[Don Pickett]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

Well that sucks. Another option, if you have a 27" iMac is to get an HDMI to Mini Display Port adapter. I've got one of these that I use for my Xbox 360 as I don't own an actual TV.

This is the one that I have, it works really well: Amazon.com: Kanex XD HDMI to Mini DisplayPort Converter for 27 inch iMac: Electronics

Good to know.

I'm more thinking of a monitor as a standalone, in addition to my main monitor.

[nonhuman]

Ah, gotcha. As long as you've got a cable box (which you must if it's a scrambled signal) then that should work just fine.

[Big Mac]

What about going in the opposite direction and using your HDTV as a monitor? My newly built PC doesn't have a graphics card yet, and its integrated video out jack is HDMI. So I connected it to my HDTV to do my initial testing/setup and was very impressed with the quality I got from it. It's also nice to be able to connect to it and get audio through HDMI.

[nonhuman]

The biggest drawback there is resolution. My iMac's at 2560x1440, which is a higher resolution than 1080p. A 27" 1080p TV will mean less desktop space.

[Big Mac]

Ah, I didn't know iMac resolutions went that high. Cool.

[Don Pickett]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

What about going in the opposite direction and using your HDTV as a monitor? My newly built PC doesn't have a graphics card yet, and its integrated video out jack is HDMI. So I connected it to my HDTV to do my initial testing/setup and was very impressed with the quality I got from it. It's also nice to be able to connect to it and get audio through HDMI.

Because I often have the monitor and TV on at the same time. The monitor I'm looking at now has HDMI, but I can't see the TV and OS X at the same time.

That said, I could see replacing my other widescreen monitor, currently hooked up to my G5, with one that does double duty. I'd just need one which does has HDMU and DVI in.